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The Lead with Jake Tapper

Some House Republicans Want to Choose New Speaker; 12 Hours on Plane before Flight Even Starts; North Korea Calls Sanctions "Repugnant"; CDC: Flu Outbreak An "Epidemic"

Aired January 05, 2015 - 16:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Welcome back to THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper.

Our politics lead now: the new Congress convenes tomorrow with Republicans in charge of both the House and the Senate for the first time since 2006. But before they can get to work, they have to pick a speaker. And John Boehner is now facing opposition. Some conservative Republicans are promising to vote against the Ohio congressman when they elect their leaders tomorrow.

CNN's chief congressional correspondent Dana Bash joins me live now with the latest.

Dana, where is most of this opposition coming from?

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, to answer that question, I think we should put it in perspective. There are going to be 246 Republicans in the House caucus. There so far are about a dozen Republicans who are saying that they're going to oppose the speaker. So, it is a very small but very vocal minority of Republicans. Those who the leadership not so lovingly historically call the "hell, no" caucus because they often vote against leadership issues.

But, you know, the whole concept of being elected is that John Boehner must not just get a majority of Republicans, the speaker is elected by all House members. So, he has to be selected by 218. That means he can afford to lose 29 Republicans and still become elected speaker.

I talked to his aides and confidants all day today. They are monitoring the insurrection but they're not that worried. Here's Republican Tom Cole, who's a Boehner ally.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. TOM COLE (R), OKLAHOMA: This is a last-moment sideshow. But it distracts from our message ought to be. We ought to be talking about the Republican agenda, that the possibilities now that we have the Senate. It was only not helpful to the speaker, it's not helpful to the conference. I mean, I just fail to see the endgame here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: That's the argument that Cole and others make is that you can't replace someone with no one. And right now, there is no other House Republican who has raised as much money, campaigned for as many people, has as much leadership experience as John Boehner, which is why they think that he will eventually get the 218.

Now, here's the but. If there is a surprise and he loses 29 votes and doesn't get the speakership outright, there would be a second vote. And then what leadership sources say that they would do is basically go into recess because this is all going to take place in public on the House floor. The Republican caucus would convene and they would try to figure out what's next. But they're not expecting it. But, you know, we've come to expect the unexpected with these House Republicans.

TAPPER: Dana Bash, thank you so much. Appreciate it.

Representative Steve King of Iowa is one of the Republicans who wants a new speaker. He joins me now. Congressman, why do you want a new speaker? What's wrong with John Boehner?

REP. STEVE KING (R) IOWA: Well, that goes back to a long history. But if I take you back to 2010 and Obamacare, it was clear there was a wave election. 87 new freshman Republicans. Every Republican pledged to repeal Obamacare. I brought the amendment to cut off all funding to implement or enforce Obamacare. I was blocked procedurally by an act that I think was the speaker's. And then it took 2 1/2 years for that to finally work its way through the system.

TAPPER: Yeah.

KING: We got a government shutdown, but we have got to - we have got to control and manage this Constitution. The president is violating it at will. And the actions of the speaker have prevented us from keeping our oath to defend the Constitution, restore the authority of Congress.

TAPPER: What would you say to those who say what you are proposing is passing more legislation that the Senate could never pass, and even if they could, President Obama would veto. So, what you're suggesting would be a number of votes that would make you and people like you feel good, but wouldn't accomplish anything and might even make the rest of the country come to hate Washington even more?

KING: One might make that argument. But I would say you need to do the right thing. And whatever - whatever your vote is, you have to keep your oath to uphold the Constitution, preserve and protect the rule of law. That means pass the legislation that the tools that you have, send it over to the Senate and it's on their conscience. And the voters have an opportunity to judge that. The antithesis of that is we're funding the president's unconstitutional acts.

Now, Obamacare's funded fully all the way out to the end of the fiscal year. And you can argue its constitutionality. But I don't think it's arguable that the president's edict for executive amnesty is unconstitutional and it's funded until February 27 with no real tools to restrain that. We've seen this movie before. I don't want to watch it again, Jake. TAPPER: And lastly on this issue and then I want to talk about

presidential politics, the people who have talked about running for speaker against Boehner are Ted Yoho from Florida, Louie Gohmert from Texas. Anyone else?

KING: Well, I would say we should anticipate the name of Daniel Webster coming forward.

TAPPER: Also from Florida.

KING: He's the former speaker of the Florida House. I've been talking with Dan for the last 2 1/2 years. He's a great respecter of the institution of the Congress. And I think the Democrats and Republicans want to see the institution restored so that the voice and the will of this republic can come from the American people through their elected members of Congress. Right now it's got - its leadership making the decisions, and leadership stuff are making the decisions. That's got to change. Dan would be helpful in changing it. I support any one of the three. I've been talking about Dan for 2.5 years on this.

TAPPER: All right. Let's talk about politics more broadly, when it comes to presidential politics. Because as people likely know, you are a Republican power broker in Iowa. Mike Huckabee announced over the weekend that he's going to leave Fox and he is contemplating running. He obviously won the Iowa caucus in 2008. What do you make of his chances?

KING: Well, certainly he's got a strong base in Iowa. It's really interesting to see that he's made this -- it's actually, it's a bold move now and it sends a clear message that I think all of us anticipate he will be a candidate, an announced candidate fairly soon. But he's got a good base with the evangelical foundation in Iowa, with the Christian base in Iowa. And he's got a good base with the fair tax. So, I think it helps our debate a lot to see Mike Huckabee step in. He starts with actually - he starts with a bit of a head start over some of the other candidates.

TAPPER: Is that right? What about Jeb Bush? He will not be attending your freedom summit, the Iowa Freedom Summit, according to his office. It's a scheduling conflict. But do you think it's possible that he doesn't want to be associated with you?

KING: You know, I can't quite speculate that. We contacted Governor Bush, Jeb Bush, months ago, a couple of months ago or longer as I recall. And at that point, he had a scheduling conflict. And I think I know what it is. But it's up to him to say that. I respect him for keeping his commitments to his scheduling conflict that he has. You know, and people commit to an event that we're organizing, if they decide they would just change their mind at the last minute, I wouldn't appreciate that. And so, I think he's good to his word. He's not afraid of confrontation, he's not afraid or verbal combat. I've seen him engaged on issues he believes in. And sometimes they are not particularly popular, but he believes in them and he engages in them. So, I don't anticipate this is anything other than a scheduling conflict. And I hope if he moves forward on this attempt to -- or this candidacy, that we see emerging, I hope that he comes to Iowa a lot. And I would remind people that I think that skipping Iowa is not a very good idea.

TAPPER: Right.

KING: And since Ronald Reagan it has taken a victory in the Ames straw poll and a victory in the Iowa caucus in order to be nominated and be elected president.

TAPPER: And be elected.

KING: And by the way, the only two people who have done that since Reagan are his father and his brother.

TAPPER: I want to talk about somebody who is attending the Iowa Freedom Summit, that's Governor Chris Christie who got some attention last night when he was sitting in the owner's box at the Dallas Cowboys game. He headlined a fundraiser for you in October where he said, I will be a supporter of Steve King for as long as he continues to be in public life. Can you say the same about him? Are you going to be a supporter for Chris Christie as long as he's in public life, including if he runs for president?

KING: That is an extraordinary compliment for anyone to receive. And I'm very, very flattered. And I like Chris Christie and I count him as a friend. And I've watched him also in the firing line when he was brought forward for his, I'll say political execution before the judiciary committee when John Conyers was chair. That's when I got to see the core of the mettle of Chris Christie.

There's a big competition out here. And I'm not going to choose sides, at least early on, I want to have a level playing field. And I'm encouraging these candidates to come to Iowa. And I hope to be in New Hampshire and South Carolina, too. This is a thrilling endeavor that Americans have and a wonderful chance to choose the best one out of 320 million to lead us.

TAPPER: I'm excited to cover it, too. Next time, I'm not going to let you off the hook this easy. But it is early. Thank you so much, Congressman.

KING: Thank you, Jake.

TAPPER: Appreciate it. In other national news, they were trapped more than a day on a plane, including 12 hours sitting on a tarmac. Passengers on this San Francisco-bound flight say they had little food or water or even information. Instead, they were being told over and over again that they were about to take off. What went so wrong? That story is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TAPPER: Welcome back to "THE LEAD." In national news, do you think your last cramped flight was annoying? How about being stuck on a plane for 28 hours? It began when passengers on board a flight to San Francisco were forced to sit on the plane for 12 hours on the tarmac. Let me say that again, 12 hours while the plane wasn't going anywhere. CNN's Suzanne Malveaux has all the infuriating details.

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It makes you wonder, what would you do on that flight, right? Would you run for the exit or crack open a window or something? It's infuriating, obviously, and it had - airways has a tremendous amount of work to do to explain to its passengers before they are going to believe that it's actually one of the world's top carriers, as they like to boast. We are talking about hundreds of passengers had to endure 20 hours on that plane, the first part trapped on that Boeing 777, the second part just trying to get to their destination. Well, this story is a wake-up call to all who travel. While there's an international body that looks at aviation rules, which is operated by the U.N., there's no real set of regulations to avoid this from happening.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MALVEAUX: Relief, exhaustion and hugs after 28 hours stuck on a plane. Passengers traveling from Abu Dhabi aboard Etihad Airlines 183 arrived in San Francisco, after hours and hours of an agonizing wait.

THOMAS PANI, PASSENGER: They kept telling us that we were going to leave 15 minutes from now, 20 minutes from now, 30 minutes from now for 12 hours.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Because of the bad weather. And the Gates - like all the flights were grounded or canceled. So, they didn't have enough space in the airport to accommodate or just take us out.

MALVEAUX: A severe fog seen here from a passenger's window forced the Abu Dhabi airport to close for just one hour. But then airplane congestion, delays and cancellations followed for days. On EY-183, children, seniors and hundreds of others sat on the tarmac for 12 hours. They say with little food, water or information.

VENKATESH PAHWA, PASSENGER: Everybody was fighting with each other and the flight attendants were fighting with us. And we were fighting with the flight attendants.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If your - has a website, but there was no updated information on the website. You called the number. It just puts you in a loop.

MALVEAUX: Etihad Airlines released a statement saying, passengers were provided with refreshments and were updated about the reasons for the rolling delay. It also said the delay was compounded by the fact they had to replace the original crew with the fresh one because of rules limiting the crew's flight time. What it called circumstances, which were largely beyond our control. The passengers, however, had to endure another 16 hours of flying. In San Francisco, worried families became furious, among them, the daughter of this 77-year-old.

ANITA NARIANI, DAUGHTER: To have them waiting, especially if they are seniors traveling on it, they have got to pull them.

MALVEAUX: Not necessarily. While the U.S. Department of Transportation prohibits airlines from keeping passengers on a plane for more than four hours leaving from the U.S., those rules do not apply to foreign carriers overseas.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: If it had happened in San Francisco, they would have been off the airline within a matter of hours, three to four hours. At the other end of this flight, there are no regulations there. They give people a chance to get off the plane.

MALVEAUX: So that same fog delay kept another flight, it had flight 23 headed for Dusseldorf on the ground even longer, we are talking about 13 hours. It was diverted to the (INAUDIBLE) after an older passenger died aboard the flight. Now, Etihad Airlines released a statement confirming the ordeal saying, flight passengers were informed about the need for a medical diversion involving a 73-year- old male passenger, yet airways apologizes to those passengers affected by these delays which were beyond the airline's control and offers its deepest condolences to the family of the passenger who passed away. This is a second flight, Jake. I mean they're in serious damage control mode.

TAPPER: They said beyond their control, but they swapped out a crew, so there was an ability to get on and off the plane.

MALVEAUX: Absolutely.

TAPPER: When they were on the tarmac.

MALVEAUX: Absolutely. But they didn't allow the passengers to get off because they said there wasn't enough room at the airport for everybody to get off at the same time.

TAPPER: Suzanne Malveaux, thank you so much. In other world news, it's a merger of two powerful families, the younger sister of North Korean leader, Kim Jong-Un reportedly married the son of a senior aide to dear leader.

Don't expect to see photos of the blushing bride in her gown grazing the covers of "US Weekly" anytime soon because as with most things in North Korea, little is known about Kim Yo-Jong's ceremony.

The nuptial is no doubt has been overshadowed by rising tensions between North Korea and the U.S. over that computer hack at Sony. The U.S. levied heavy sanctions against the country after the FBI claimed proof that the rogue nation was behind the hack.

Now North Korea is firing back with strong words for the White House. Let's bring in CNN chief national security correspondent, Jim Sciutto -- Jim.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: So another choice selection from North Korea's choice, rhetorical language when it comes to the U.S. statement saying, the U.S. is still clearly not away from inherent repugnance and hostility towards the DPRK registering their complaint with this.

But it's interesting. I looked back at the Department of Treasury statement when they announced these sanctions and the U.S. using very strong language with North Korea as well saying we're holding North Korea accountable for its destabilizing, destructive, and repressive actions.

You just hoped that this back and forth stays in the rhetorical category. It doesn't go further than that, but clearly, as well, the U.S. doubling down on its certainty that North Korea was behind the Sony hack.

TAPPER: What is the U.S. trying to specifically accomplish with these sanctions?

SCIUTTO: They're trying to strike this delicate balance of achieving a proportional response without making this bigger than it already is. One, they want to show, we're certain North Korea did it. Two, the U.S. wants to punish them in a measurable way but not go too far.

So these sanctions fairly targeted ten individuals who were in effect the North Korea's moneymen abroad, heavily involved in the arms trade, which is how they make a lot of their money as well as three major government agencies including their equivalent really in the KGB, which does a lot of arms trading as well.

But the U.S. did not use the nuclear option, bad phrase, in economic terms, the nuclear option, of cutting off North Korea's access to the international financial markets, which you could do, for instance, is go after the Chinese banks, which allow North Korea to get foreign exchange abroad.

They haven't done that. But you'll remember that in the statement, the U.S. said, this is just the first step, be prepared for other steps down the road so telegraphing that they're not finished.

TAPPER: But these ten individuals aren't necessarily involved directly in the Sony hack to begin with --

SCIUTTO: Not directly. It was an economic cost beyond cyber warfare imposed in large part, but not entirely because of the cyberattack. They say it's in response to its repressive actions at home.

And I'm also told by administration officials it's their expectation that it doesn't just affect the ten involved and those three entities.

That other international entities that do business with North Korea through them might say, wait a second, I might want to lay off as well. So there is a force multiplier here in economic terms.

TAPPER: All right, to be continued, I'm sure. Jim Sciutto, thank you so much.

Wolf Blitzer is now here with a preview of "THE SITUATION ROOM." You're covering a lot of ground with Pentagon spokesman, Rear Admiral John Kirby today.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST, "THE SITUATION ROOM": A very smart guy, he is going to be joining us. We have lots to discuss, not only the Airasia search, what's going on, on that front because two U.S. naval ships are in the area, the Samson, the Fort Worth right now.

American divers are on the scene. We'll see how far that goes. I got a lot of questions for him on that. And also what's going on -- apparently 320 American troops at one of the bases that the U.S..now has gone to in Iraq in the Al Anbar Province, the al-Assad air base over there, they are coming under heavy fire from ISIS.

How endangered are these American troops right now, what are the contingency plans to get them out of there because you can't really trust the Iraqi troops for protection. We'll talk about that and North Korea as well. Lots going on.

TAPPER: Wolf Blitzer, happy New Year. Good to see you, sir.

BLITZER: Thank you.

TAPPER: When we come back, new numbers just out from the Centers for Disease Control showing an uptick in hospitalizations from this flu epidemic. Why isn't the flu vaccine working?

Also, yes, it's January, but zero-degree temperatures as a high? Plus, freezing rain, sleet and snow and windchills at 5 degrees below zero? Even Florida not safe from this arctic blast. We'll tell you where its headed next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TAPPER: Welcome back to THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper. In national news, with the holiday break over, thousands of kids went back to school today in the middle of what the Centers for Disease Control are calling a flu epidemic.

A short time ago, the CDC released new numbers showing 43 states now reporting either high or widespread flu activity. The virus has now killed at least 21 children and it is overloading emergency rooms across the country with peak flu season still two months away in some areas.

Joining me now is the director for the CDC, Dr. Thomas Frieden. Doctor, thanks for joining us. The CDC called this an epidemic last week. Today, it seems even worse. How likely is it that it's going to keep getting worse?

DR. THOMAS FRIEDEN, DIRECTOR, CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION: One of the things about flu is that it's unpredictable. We can't say with certainty that's going to happen in the coming weeks and months. But we do know there's a lot of flu out there and there's a lot that you can do to protect yourself.

If you haven't been vaccinated, get vaccinated. If you're sick, stay home. And if you're sick and you have an underlying condition whether it's diabetes or kidney failure or anyone who's very young or very old, there's medicine you can take that will make a big difference and may keep you out of the hospital.

TAPPER: So Doc, I know a lot of people who got the flu shot got sick anyway for any number of reasons, there are several strains of the virus, one of them has mutated. Explain why people should continue to get the flu shot even though its effectiveness this year is not as good as in past years.

FRIEDEN: We don't think it will be as effective this year as in past years because the most common strain of flu that's circulating has drifted and the antegens, the genetic makeup of that particular substrain of influenza is now different from the vaccine strain.

So we don't think the vaccine is likely to be as effective as we would like. It's still going to have some level of effectiveness against the other strains of flu that are out there.

And if you do get sick, the quicker you get treated with a medicine like Tamiflu, the more likely you are to benefit from that and reduce your illness by about a day, might keep you out of the hospital or if you're hospitalized, keep you out of the intensive care unit or it could even save your life.

TAPPER: Tell the parents who are watching right now, the moms and the dads and the take caretakers, how concerned they should be and what they should do to try to keep their kids from getting the flu as they go back to school. A lot of people think the two-week break might have helped slow down the outbreak.

FRIEDEN: Well, first and foremost, get a flu shot, even though this year's flu shot is not as effective as we would hope it would be, it's still the single most effective measure we have to prevent influenza.

Second, if you've got a kid who's got special needs or someone who's under 2 years of age, by all means, if they start getting sick, contact your doctor immediately and ask about getting a medication like Tamiflu because that can really reduce the severity of illness.

And unfortunately only about one out of six people with severe flu get a medicine like Tamiflu. And though it's not perfect, it does reduce the duration of illness by about a day and that's certainly worth it.

TAPPER: So even if the kid is -- don't just send the kid to bed and give them chicken soup and hope for the best if the kid is showing symptoms, go to the doctor. Dr. Thomas Frieden, thank you so much. Appreciate it.

Between the flu outbreak and this next story, you might not want to leave your home until baseball season. Right now, dangerous bone- chilling cold is sweeping across the U.S. Windchills ranged from zero in Kansas to 35 below in Minnesota.

Parts of the east coast including New York and D.C. will see lows in the teens. Meteorologist, Jennifer Gray is standing by for us in the CNN Severe Weather Center. Jennifer, good to see you. These are the coldest temps of the season so far, right?

JENNIFER GRAY, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Absolutely. And it's no joke, when you have temperatures feeling like 30 and 40 degrees below zero, schools in Michigan didn't even go to school today. We had temperatures so cold that you could get frostbite if you are outside only a half hour.

So we're talking about a dangerous cold. It's serious. Minneapolis right now feeling like 15 degrees below zero. Tonight's lows, 3 in Chicago, 3 below in Minneapolis. Temperatures around 17 in Kansas City. These temperatures are going to stay cold for some time.

Tonight, there is a windchill advisory in for the northern plains, the Upper Midwest, where we're going to see temperatures feeling like 25 to 50 degrees below zero. That's what it's going to feel like when you wake up in the morning in Minneapolis.

On Tuesday morning, it will feel like 40 below. We're going to winds of 15 miles per hour with gusts even higher. D.C., it reaches you by Wednesday when your low is going to be 10 degrees, feeling like 10 or 15 degrees below zero.

Here's a look at your high temperatures, 7 degrees in Chicago on Friday, 1 degree on Wednesday in Chicago. We'll see temperatures around 5 degrees on Friday in Minneapolis, 2 on Wednesday. New York City, temperatures only in the 20s.

Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, we are going to see snowfall as well. Chicago, you could pick up 2 to 4 inches of snow as we through Tuesday night into Wednesday.

And we could also see a little bit of snow in New York City by the time we get to Thursday. Jake, if you're wanting a warm-up, it's not going to happen anytime soon. A lot of these areas in the Midwest aren't going get above freezing for at least another week.

TAPPER: Jennifer Gray, always bringing us the great news. Thank you so much, appreciate it.

Turning to the Sports Lead now, once upon a time, sports broadcasters were mostly thought of as dorky guys spouting out statistics and then came Stuart Scott, the host of ESPN Sportscenter, who lost his long- fought battle with cancer yesterday.

He was a pioneer of sorts in the industry. He fearlessly injected hip-hop and pop culture references into his coverage at a time when that was virtually unheard of. So in a fitting tribute, his former co-anchor, Rich Eisen, made homage by incorporating a number of so- called Stuart-isms into his coverage of Playoff Highlights on the NFL Network.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Like a man smoking at a gas station, he was about to blow up! Jeremy Hill as cool as the other side of the pillow! I ain't saying nothing, but that ain't right. Can I get a witness from the congregation?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Bring it, Rich!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Eight minutes to go in the third quarter and Andrew Lock makes a play and, boo-yah! And Jarel Freeman tells Dalton, you've got to get the heck up out of here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: Scott joined ESPN in 1993, his last appearance on "Sportscenter" was back in June. May he rest in peace. That's it for THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper. I turn you over to Wolf Blitzer in "THE SITUATION ROOM."